Saturday, February 4, 2012

Nachos for a heart-attack-free super bowl party!

I don't really have much interest in the super bowl besides the commercials and maybe the half-time show, but I love good food and entertaining! If I were having a super bowl party, this is what I would serve. You won't have to worry about heart attacks with this recipe. My sisters and I opted to go to Trader Joe's for a quick meal rather than Chipotle the other day and that is where this recipe was born. We needed it to be quick and with three of us it took less than 10 minutes to throw everything together. So unless you have 3 pairs of hands working in It was so good I had to share. This recipe features vegan nacho cheese, vegan sour cream, refried beans, beef-less taco meat, guacamole, salsa and fajita style peppers and onions.
Mmm Fajita Nachos


Vegan Fajita-Style Nachos

You will need:
2 tubs of non-dairy [cream cheese] spread
1 can Trader Joe's salsa style refried beans
1 pepper (red or green)
1/2 red onion
1 bag blue corn chips
1 package Avocados Number One Guacamole- or if you have time to make any other guacamole recipe, that's fine
1 tub of Trader Joes Serrano Salsa Fresca- or other Salsa you enjoy
1 tsp Trader Joes Red Jalapeno Sauce- if you don't have TJ's maybe you can sub Tapatio or Texas Pete or whatever other hot sauce you enjoy
1 package TJ's Beef-less Grounds
olive oil
1 Tbs lemon juice 
1 tsp chili pepper
1/2 tsp paprika 
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt

Start by slicing the peppers and onions first then place the onions in a pan with some olive oil on low-medium heat. While the onions are cooking down, start the taco "meat." 

In a bowl mix the chili pepper, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and salt in with your Beef-less Grounds. Once thoroughly mixed, pour olive oil into a pan add your "meat" and brown until desired temp is reached.

 While you're cooking the meat or once you're done, it should be time to add the sliced pepper to the onions that have been cooking. Add more oil if necessary. 

Next make the nacho cheese. Take one container of non-dairy spread and dump it into a small saucepan. Add 1/2 C water and 1tsp Jalapeno sauce along with a dash of salt and a dash of garlic. Stir over low heat until your nacho cheese reaches desired consistency. 

Now put the refried beans in a bowl with 1/4 cup water and heat in the microwave on high about 2 minutes. Stir well once you take it out of the microwave. By now our peppers and onions should be cooked so don't forget to remove them from heat.

Then make the sour cream. In a bowl mix the other tub of sour cream with about 2 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs of lemon juice and it's ready to serve. If it still feels too thick you can add a little more water.

Place everything in serving bowls and let your guests put together their nachos however they like. If you're taking food to a party and that's too inconvenient, you can layer it in a large bowl in this order: beans, meat, nacho cheese, peppers and onion, guacamole, salsa, sour cream. Or, try my 7 Layer Dip if you prefer. 

Happy Super Bowl!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I think I must be a stress eater but at least it's good for my creativity!

My mom's in the hospital, she just had surgery. She's doing well but every time I come home from the hospital I just keep making delicious gluten-free recipes. Maybe it's because all the food at the hospital is so awful I have to remind myself that there's good food in the world. Yesterday I made the most delicious rosemary olive gluten-free loaf which my sister and I polished off before I could think of blogging about it. Today I woke up wanting pancakes so. I made my own recipe and made the dough. They were amazing! Luckily for you guys, I remembered to blog. ;-) This recipe is so easy too!
So delicious!


Easy Gluten-Free Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 C certified gluten free oats
  • 1/2 C cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsp. honey* or agave
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. xanthan gum**
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. flax meal***
  • 1 C. water + 1/4 C water
  • 1 Tbsp. oil- I used olive but I think it would be better with grape seed oil.
  • 1/4 C blueberries (optional)
  • *Honey is not considered vegan by most so if you're opposed to the consumption of honey, use agave
  • ** You can find xanthan gum at Whole Foods or online. I also see it at the chinese grocery stores sometimes. Most recipes don't require much so it's good to just keep around the house for your GF baking needs.
  • *** The flax meal and 1/4 C water mixture is a replacement for an egg so if you eat eggs and you don't have flax, you can use one egg instead.
This is the dough before I added the blueberries.







How to make it

  • Put the 1/2 C oats into the blender and blend until the oats have mostly the consistency of flour. In mixing bowl, stir together oats, corn starch, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. In a small bowl combine the flax meal with 1/4 C water and mix together. Let stand while you get another mixing bowl, and mix the honey, water, and oil. Add to oat mixture all at once and mix in flax meal mixture and blueberries if you're using them. Stir until blended. Pour about 2 Tbsp. or 1/4 C onto heated pan or griddle. On my stove we set it to a 2 out of 8. Not sure what temp that is. Sorry. You can test the temp of your pan or griddle by wetting your fingers and dropping a drop or two of water onto it. If it skates across the surface, it's ready. When you drop the dough onto the pan, you will need to help it spread out as the dough doesn't really spread out easily as regular pancake mix. Perhaps this could be helped by adding more liquid but I didn't think to try that.
  • Cook until pancakes are golden brown, you will know it's time to flip when you see little bubbles on the surface of the pancake.  Makes 8 to 10 pancakes. 
  • And yes, my sister and I ate them all. :-p